FREEDOM FROM WORRY
Our thoughts like to race around in the future ... where we spend too much time
creating confusing games with countless options, decisions, and what if’s. Worry
is actually unproductive and totally useless. Statistically, most things that we worry
about do not EVER happen, so worry is a needless waste of our creative energy.
"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow;
it empties today of its strength." — Corrie Ten Boom

FREEDOM FROM CONFUSION
People who live with integrity, who focus on their values and on developing their
personal character, are rarely confused. They avoid intellectual clutter, know who
they are, what they stand for, and have a clear picture of where they are going.
"Because clarity and enlightenment are within your own nature,
they are regained without moving an inch." — Lao Tzu

FREEDOM FROM PRETENSE
This vital element of character revolves around genuineness and sincerity.
Webster defines it as "being credible" and "worthy of trust." To improve our
personal, local and global relationships we must fully embrace our
AUTHENTIC SELVES ... and release all need for pretense.
"A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense. No truth seems true.
A simple morning's greeting and response appear loaded with innuendo and
fraught with implications. Each nicety becomes more sterile and
each withdrawal more permanent." — Maya Angelou

FREEDOM FROM COMPLEXITY
We exist in a world that asks us to live complicated, stressful and complex lives ...
and if we are not careful, we can lose our values and our joy by falling prey to
the ever-increasing demands on our time. SIMPLICITY requires us to slow down
to consider how our lives reflect who we are and, most important, what we value.
"Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life,
and the labors of life reduce themselves." — Edwin Way Teale

FREEDOM FROM FEAR
It's vital to remember that freedom from fear can exist only in the
PRESENT tense. To overcome fear’s seduction, we must stop being trapped
between the past and future and move to where freedom lives: squarely in
the "Now." For only here can our life can have meaning in the world.
"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else
is more important than fear." — Ambrose Redmoon

FREEDOM FROM CRITICISM
Other folks can have any opinion or be as critical as they wish. That's their right —
WE also have the right to IGNORE them! Embrace the concepts in Terry Cole Whittaker's
bestselling book: What You Think of Me Is None of My Business and declare your
independence from those who regularly criticize, but fail to offer constructive assistance.
"Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain ...
and most fools do." — Dale Carnegie

FREEDOM FROM ISOLATION
To experience the freedom that comes from the warmth and companionship of sharing
our innermost thoughts and feelings with another human being ... we must allow
others to get close. "Today, I will get to know the real me by first taking a personal
inventory, then I will practice being completely honest with another person."
"Despair and isolation are my greatest internal enemies; I need to remember
I am not alone, even when it feels that way." — Audre Lorde

FREEDOM FROM COMPULSIONS
To some degree we are all compulsive — over-working, over-spending,
over-worrying and over-consuming in a variety of forms. We believe that the
only solution is CONTROL, but in trying to control our compulsions, they
inevitably control us. SLOWING DOWN creates a space that gives us
increased sensitivity and time for more positive thought and action.
"A person is rich in proportion to the things
he or she can afford to let alone." — Henry David Thoreau

Declare YOUR independence from old patterns, habits,
'shoulds' and relationships or addictions that have limited you.
Determine to live your life to the fullest — to explore your potential
and live according to your own conscience and highest aspirations.

— Want What You Have —
Do What You Can — Be Who You Are!

Created from Info on Selected Websites & My Own Personal Life Experiences and Philosophy
~ Chelle Thompson, Inspiration Line Editor ~